Cinematography and Color Theory

Lighting

• Cinematographers are responsible for lighting.
• Directors and cinematographers collaborate.
• Natural lighting uses existing light sources (sun, moon, etc.).
• Studio lighting is controlled by technicians.
• Low key lighting creates shadows.
• High key lighting is brightly lit.
• High contrast lighting uses light and dark.
• Chiaroscuro lighting uses dramatic contrast.

Color

• Visual design manages colors in a film.
• Production design handles on-set color choices.
• Cinematography and editing crews control color using cameras and grading.
• Colors evoke specific emotions:
  • Red: anger, violence, love, passion
  • Blue: sadness, cold, purity, tranquility
  • Yellow: happiness, cowardice, heat, hope
  • Green: nature, sickness, growth, envy, greed
  • Purple: royalty, death, rarity
  • Orange: warmth, coziness
  • Brown: nature, earth, reliability

Black and White Photography

• Black and white de-emphasizes external action, emphasizing internal action.
• Flashbacks are often in black and white to focus on events.

Saturation

• Over-saturation makes colors overly vibrant.
• Desaturation lessens color intensity in editing.
• Neutral colors look consistent between set and film.

Atmospheric Color

• Atmospheric color modifies a subject's color based on the environment.
• Local color is the subject's inherent color.

Advancing and Receding Colors

• Advancing colors are bright and attention-grabbing.
• Receding colors (beige, gray) are less noticeable.

Light Motif in Color

• Repeated colors create associations with themes across a film.

Expressionism and Ironic/Surrealistic Color Use

• Expressionism uses color to express emotion.
• Ironic color use is unexpected color choice.
• Surrealistic color use breaks established color palettes.

Cinematography

• Cinematographer is the director of photography.

• Visual language separates film from other art forms.

• Cinematic syntax is the order of information in a scene.

• Blocking arranges people and objects within the frame.

• Semantics determines a shot's meaning.

• Low and high angles create specific effects.

• Pragmatics affects shot meaning based on context.

• Perspective/Suture is point of view.

• Subjective POV creates a strong connection.

• Eye-line shot, pure POVs, subjective POVs illustrate perspective.

• Breaking the fourth wall involves character interaction with the audience.

• Dirty shoulder creates a documentary feel.

• Incomplete POV uses multiple shots.

• Found POV shows the viewpoint through the source.

• Objective POV is neutral and unbiased.

• Slow zoom focuses slowly on an object.

• Director POV highlights a specific element.

• Extreme high angle/God POV is very high or directly from above.

• Long take/continuous take is an extended shot.

• Close-up (neck up), medium shot (hips up). long shot (subject far away/ surrounded by environment)

• Two shot, three shot, group shot for number of characters framed.

• Shot over shot and master shot use two scenes.

• Shot reverse shot showcases conversation.

• Shaky cam simulates authenticity or emotion.

• Composition lines (perpendicular, diagonal, curved) create visual effect.

• Foreground framing emphasizes elements in the background.

• Fixed camera allows panning and tilting.

• Camera movement includes dolly/tracking, crane shots.

• Dolly zoom shows spatial relationship between foreground and background.

• Deep focus: everything in focus.

• Shallow focus: one thing in focus.

• Rack focus: changing focus within a shot

• Soft focus: diffuses light.

• Wide-angle/fisheye lens expands visual field.

• Golden hour refers to filming at daylight.

Production design

• Film adaptations often use set design to establish character status.
• Camera angles show character importance.
• Lighting creates tone changes in a scene.

Editing

• Soviet editing techniques apply to modern films.
• The Kuleshov experiment used montage.
• Editing creates emotional impact.
• Continuity editing is clear and predictable (Hollywood style).
• Discontinuity editing is deliberately challenging.
• Montage (explanatory/intellectual) condenses/compares scenes.
• Intercutting changes between scenes/images.
• Crosscutting uses different locations in parallel.
• Fade in/out transitions gradually show/hide images.
• Dissolve/fade smoothly shows transitions.
• Form cut: matching scene compositions.
• Hard cut: abrupt transition.
• Smash cut: sudden, abrupt end.
• J-cut: sound from old scene lingers.
• L-cut: sound from new scene begins.
• Iris wipe: circular transition effect.
• Ellipsis shows gaps in time.
• Jump cuts quickly advances time.
• Flash cuts rapidly advance time/action.
• Split screen shows multiple views.
• Composite editing combines frames.
• Superimposed (imposition) editing has one image layering over another.
• Thawed frame moves a still image.
• Still shots, slow-motion, fast motion
• Time-lapse

Sound Design

• Sound sets film tone.
• Sound mixer collects sound during filming
• Sound editor, sound desginer work in post-production.
• Foley artists create sound effects.
• Ambient sounds are natural to the environment.
• Preferred sound effect emphasizes a sound.
• Expressionism through sound manipulates sound.
• Distorted sound intentionally alters sounds.
• Echo repeats sounds.
• Silence is a sound effect.
• Cut on sound emphasizes effects.
• Non-diegetic sound comes from outside the film.
• Sound as symbol has literal and figurative meaning.
• 3D sound emphasizes screen space.
• ADR (Audio dialogue replacement) corrects dialogue.
• Slow-motion sound usually accompanies slow-motion.

Dialogue

• Dialogue can be monosyllabic or polysyllabic.

Score

• Composers create new music.
• Musical supervisors secure music rights.
• Music associates with film themes.
• Mickey mousing synchronizes music with actions.
• Peter and the wolfing associates music with characters.
• Diegetic score is audible to characters.
• Symbolic score represents themes.
• Ironic score contrasts actions and music.
• Expressionism in score shows internal character states.
• Initial score sets tone.

Animation

• Animation is expensive before Snow White.
• Each frame is set individually.
• Animation, not just children's animation.
• Key frame animation are important frames.
• In-betweens fill animation gaps.
• Stop-motion adjusts figures in each frame.
• Puppet animation use maniputable figures.
• Claymation uses clay.
• Japanese anime expresses culture/identity.
• Post-humanism explores beyond human limits.
• Mocap (Motion Capture) animates from actor’s body movements.
• Pixelation uses everyday objects to convey life.
• Expressionist animation expresses emotion.

Style and Director

• Auteur style expresses director personality
• Pedro Almodòvar's style blends Spanish elements with Hollywood techniques.
• Fantastic Realism (genre) blends realism with exaggeration.
• Color choices contribute to satire in Almodòvar's films.
• Films often use intertextuality and mise-en-abyme.
• Marginalized characters are not story drivers; they represent character identity.

Genres

• Genre conventions describe rules and patterns.
• Iconography describes genre aesthetics.
• Horror/SciFi/Fantasy share common roots in fear (of body, technology, culture).
• Horror films depict monsters representing ideas or societal conflict.
• Settings align with subgenres.